Loose screws, bent arms and worn nose pads: what a store can actually fix

Most people replace glasses that only needed servicing. Frames are mechanical objects worn for twelve hours a day in heat and sweat, and nearly everything that goes wrong with them is adjustable. Here is what is fixable, what needs a part, and what to stop touching.

1. Glasses sliding down your nose — five minutes

Almost always the temple arms, not the nose. The arms behind your ears need the right bend and the right tension to hold the frame in place. Heat, sweat and taking glasses off one-handed all loosen that over months. On metal frames the arms are reshaped; on acetate they are warmed and adjusted. Free, quick, and the single most common thing we correct.

2. Sitting crooked on your face — five minutes

One lens lower than the other is usually an arm bent slightly out of alignment, not an ear that has moved. It matters more than looking untidy: with progressives, a crooked frame puts the reading corridor in the wrong place and you will feel it as trouble finding the reading zone.

3. Loose screws — five minutes, and stop overtightening

The tiny screw at the hinge works loose with use. A store will tighten it properly and can apply a thread treatment so it stays. What not to do is attack it with a kitchen screwdriver that does not fit the head — that strips the screw, and a stripped screw turns a thirty-second job into a hinge replacement.

4. Worn or discoloured nose pads — replaceable

On most metal frames the nose pads are consumable parts. They harden, discolour and lose grip, and once hardened they concentrate pressure on one spot and leave marks. Replacing them is routine. If your frame marks your nose or leaves indentations, this is usually the answer rather than a new frame.

5. Bent or splayed frame after being sat on — often recoverable

Metal frames tolerate a surprising amount of this and can frequently be brought back into alignment. Acetate can be warmed and reshaped within limits. What determines the outcome is whether anything has cracked rather than bent. Bring it in before attempting anything — a frame bent once can usually be corrected, and a frame bent back and forth repeatedly fatigues and snaps.

6. Scratched lenses — not repairable

Be clear about this one, because products are sold claiming otherwise. A scratch is material removed from the lens surface and its coating. Nothing fills it back in. Polishing compounds and toothpaste tricks abrade the coating further and make the haze worse. Scratched lenses get replaced, and the frame you like can usually keep going with new lenses in it.

7. Snapped frame front or broken hinge — depends on the frame

A clean break at the bridge or a hinge torn out of acetate is the hardest category. Sometimes a part is available, sometimes it is a soldering job on metal, and sometimes the honest answer is that the repair will not hold and you are better off putting your lenses into a new frame. We will tell you which of those it is rather than charge you for an attempt that fails.

What to stop doing

• Bending arms yourself repeatedly. Metal fatigues. Each correction weakens the same spot.
• Using the wrong screwdriver. Stripping the head is the expensive outcome.
• Superglue. It bonds badly, goes brittle, wicks onto the lens and permanently fogs the coating. It also makes a real repair harder afterward.
• Hot water to reshape acetate. Too much heat warps the frame and stresses the lens coatings.
• Leaving them on a dashboard. A parked car in Manila sun will do more damage in an afternoon than a year of wear.

Visit a Vision Express store

Visit a Vision Express store and let us look at it. Free lifetime custom fitting and adjustment covers the arms, the alignment and the nose pads, and free lifetime ultrasonic cleaning gets the built-up film out of the hinges and lens grooves that hand cleaning never reaches. Bring the frame in whenever it stops sitting right rather than waiting until something snaps.

When the lenses are past saving, ask for Opulens Ultra 1.60 at the counter — a top layer that sheds oil and water, so in our humidity sweat and fingerprints wipe off cleanly instead of smearing and needing the hard rubbing that causes scratches in the first place. In stock and ready in 20 minutes.

And if it has been over a year, book a Vision7 eye test while the frame is being serviced — new lenses are worth making to a current prescription. Every pair carries a 1-year warranty.